Doctor Zola was an exceptionally unexceptional man. His face looked like a squashed rat with narrow eyes, scanning = the room nervously. His short stubby fingers curled around one another; his handcuffs rattled with each small movement. One cuff around his wrist, one on his leg… just in case.
Beatrice had been allowed in here for half an hour. No more. No less. And she intended to make the most of it. Peggy had given her access – although, Beatrice was sure Peggy had absolutely no idea what she was agreeing to when Bea asked if she could speak to Zola. Fresh tears had coated her eyes after being told the news about Steve and she'd struggled to form the words 'Yes'.
"Are we going to stop and stare at each other all day?" Beatrice spoke, her jaw hurt from clenching it so much, "or are you going to answer my question?"
"I have nothing to say."
"That's nice." He wasn't getting out that easy. She shifted closer until he had no choice but to look at the eyes in front of him. "Here's the thing… I'm desperate. I am more desperate than I've ever been and unfortunately, I need your help. But I understand you're not going to help me for free – so, I'm going to offer you your freedom if you help me."
"How are you going to get me out? Who are you?" He shrugged, his index finger tapping the table continuously as if he was merely bored with the direction the conversation was going in, "…I don't know what more I can help you with. I've already told your superior where Red Skull is."
"I don't need you for that," She scoffed. That was old information. Colonel Phillips had interrogated him already.
"What do you need more for then?"
"The experiment that you did on Sergeant Barnes. It worked. You must have somehow recreated the super soldier serum."
"What?" Zola's interest peaked. His eyes widening with delight. "It- it worked…?"
"You really are a crazy scientist." She said, merely looking down at him with distaste. Only a mad man would get excited that his experiments on other humans worked. "but… unfortunately, I need a crazy scientist. If I've got any hope of beating red skull I need to become just as strong. You're going to do whatever you did on Bucky… on.. on… well… to me"
Now that was the longest silence of all. Zola had been making it difficult for her to get him to start talking but now he seemed determined to stare blankly at her. The only give away that he was shocked as his finger suspended tapping mid-air.
She frowned at his response, "Can you do this?"
Zola's head tilted like a curious cat, "What makes you think you are fit for the serum?"
"I- I don't…" She had never considered that she would need to be the right 'fit' for the serum. She only thought it was a case of injecting it. She shrugged, no bothered whether or not she was a suitable match. "Maybe I'm not. But I need the tesseract."
She could see the gears in his head rubbing viciously together as he tapped the dip in his chin, "You would give me my freedom?"
"I did say that."
"How will you give me my freedom? As far as I'm aware you have no power here."
"I don't need power here," She quickly looked around the room, a habit just to check no one was listening, "I'll break you out. Then you can make it on your own. You can run back to red skull if you like…"
"I don't trust you."
"Then don't," Bea shrugged, "it's not like you don't have a choice. I'm the only option you've got." She was getting the information out of him one way or another. "So… what's it going to be?"
Zola's eyes scanned the room, unlike Beatrice who was rooted in paranoia, he was searching for traps and prying ears. Not that he would find any. The room wasn't even guarded at the minute, Beatrice had convinced Peggy well to give her the time she needed in the room.
"Very well." That wasn't hard. Apparently, Hydra's loyalty was a fickle thing. "All my serums were being transported on the train and if you hijacked the train then the SSR should possess it all." There was a sadness in his tone, that all his life's work was under the control of someone else. "Do you have some paper and a pen."
She retrieved some paper from her bag and slapped it down in front of him. "Write."
Hunching over the table, Zola began to scribble some scientific nonsense onto the paper. She watched with beady eyes, feigning intelligence and nodding every few seconds when he lifted his pen to start a new word. When he was done, the paper was slid into her sweaty palms.
There was no time to waste. She quickly stood and pocketed the paper.
"And my freedom?"
Beatrice darted to the door, "will be discussed later."
First she had to find Peggy.
It wasn't hard, she found her dazing into the dark abyss of the camp. For the first time her nails weren't polished and hair was uncurled, lying flat against her shoulders. At any other time, Beatrice would have been concerned, but she didn't have the time to consider Peggy's emotional well-being and tapped her on the shoulder to gain her attention.
"I have the information. I need your help."
"Can't it wait until morning," Peggy's voice broke through sadly as she resisted the tug of her arm as Bea tried to coax her to stand, "I think we've all had a long day and should turn in for the night."
"You won't turn in," Bea said flatly, "you'll be tossing and turning all night. So, get off your arse and help me actually get on with something practical that can help me take down Hydra."
Peggy rolled her eyes. "Zola hardly would have told you anything of importance."
"I convinced him I would free him. I'm not actually going too…" She urged quickly seeing Peggy's eyes widen in fright. "I need access to everything you collected from the train. All of Zola's things. The serums… the substances… potions?"
"potions?"
"Whatever they're called."
"He's not a witch."
"And I'm not a scientist, so I need help."
Peggy shook her head, "Everything that was collected is all in the labs downstairs but it's locked and closed for the night."
"Do you have a key to get in?" Bea asked. With each passing second it felt as if time was passing through her lungs, being wasted.
"yes."
"Then let's go!" She sharply tugged on her arm to stand. The sudden jerk and in her heels almost made Peggy trip. Almost. But with her grace and class, Peggy managed to recover and trotted after her, quickly matching her fast pace.
"What could you possibly need in there?"
"The serum that turned Steve into Captain America."
"We don't have the serum," She said, sounding out of breath. "The last of it was destroyed when Steve… Captain Rogers was made."
"Zola made it. One thing I didn't mention beforehand was that Bucky was successfully turned into a super soldier, when he was a prisoner there-" Peggy opened her mouth to interrupted but Bea beat her to it. "And I didn't say anything because I wanted to protect him. He doesn't need to know."
They made it to the lab. With only a bit of hesitation and a side look to Bea, Peggy forced the key into the lock. It sprung open and the two women hastily ran inside. She had no idea where to look next, so showed the slip of paper to Peggy for further instructions.
"Oh – hang on," Peggy frowned at the paper, "potas-" she stopped mid-word to clutch the paper again, "Are you sure about this?"
No- "Yes."
Peggy gave her a doubtful glare but sighed anyhow and started moving down the aisle of shelves that – well, at least when Bea had walked past – had always been empty up until now, but now were full with boxes and containers. Some of them read; Do not open! In bright red tape sealed around the edges.
Bea heard the sounds of Peggy's heels clap to a stop in front of a shelf, and a second later reappear with a black box in her hand. She placed it delicately on the table in front of them, and Peggy began to unseal the box. Just as it came free of its holding; Peggy slapped the palm of her hand down on the top.
"I need to ask," She said, "What are you going to do with this? If it is true and Zola truly has recreated the serum… what are you going to do?"
"Firstly, it is true," Bea gave a pointed look at the fact Peggy doubted her, "Secondly, I'm going to inject myself with it. If I've any hope of defeating Red-"
Peggy began violently shaking her head. Shakily, she tried to reseal the box but Bea was quick to stop her.
"What? What's wrong?" Even more alarmingly, she saw tears gleam in Peggy's eyes.
"You. You cannot just replace Steve." Her voice raised threateningly, "Is that your intention? Was that your intention all along?"
"Peg…"
"It's Agent Carter," Peggy hissed with venom, "Rogers gave his life to this cause and if he couldn't defeat Red Skull what hope do you think you have. If it's true what you say and Barnes is also got the serum in his veins, then he should be the one to take Hydra down – it's what Steve would have wanted."
"No." Bea cussed loudly, "I won't have Bucky in danger… you really think Steve would want Bucky in danger. My missions bigger than all of this. I can't have anything screw up." She couldn't risk Bucky dying. Not again. Not after everything. "I'm not replacing Steve. I could never replace Steve."
But Peggy shook her head in a jutted motion, "I've been thinking. You could have stopped Steve's death…"
"I couldn't have," Said Bea, "I didn't know."
"How could you have not?"
"I… I changed things from my timeline. I-I had no idea what was going to happen."
"I helped you," Peggy fired back. She wasn't thinking straight. Steve's death. The serum. Zola. It was all too much for her to handle. Bea took a step back, her eye on the box as she considered taking it and running but even she wasn't sure whether or not she could fight Peggy in one to one combat.
"Peg. I need that serum. I've got to do this."
"I should have had you arrested from the start." Peggy exclaimed, her makeup coming off in streaks down her face, "If it weren't for you, Steve would still be alive."
"No! No he wouldn't be!" Bea threw her hands in the air, "He would have been alive for a few more days only to die later on. In the original timeline it was Bucky that died on the train – only really, he was taken prisoner by Hydra but no one knew. Steve then took down Hydra but only by sacrificing himself. He was supposed to go down in a plane that held bombs heading to major US cities." The words came spilling out of her mouth before she could stop them. "but he stopped it and crashed the plane. It went under ice, and instead of dying the serum protected him. He was dug up seventy years later… I knew him. I know him. I went to your funeral because I was beside Steve… he had to bury you in the ground. God – Peggy, you have no clue how much he loved you and… and he was my best friend! I need to get this bloody tesseract so I can get back home to a timeline where I didn't accidently fucking kill Steve Rogers because I was so selfish in thinking that saving Bucky wouldn't have consequences."
Bea took a sharp breath. Her chest rising and falling from the oxygen that had been lost with the ramble that just unwillingly escaped her mouth. No one had considered how she felt about Steve death- no one knew what he had meant to her. In this time period, she had lost Fifteen and now Steve. All she needed now was to return home and have Natasha randomly explode. Then she truly would have lost everything.
She wanted to run back into the open air and let it engulf her but Peggy's tamed glare made her stand her ground.
"You knew Steve?"
"And Bucky." She confirmed. There was no going back now, "He's the father of my kid. The future version of him anyway. Originally, he was supposed to fall off the train and be taken by Hydra, in a cryochamber where they would freeze him and train him to be a killer-"
"So? Hydra isn't defeated for another seventy years?"
"Sort of." Bea cringed, "They go more into hiding… they kind of… they kind of infiltrate the government but that's a whole other story. Steve stops it."
"Was supposed to stop it." Peggy's breath hitched.
"Yes. I suppose."
"He wasn't supposed to die on the train?"
Bea shook her head.
Peggy looked around, as if waiting for someone to jump out and scream 'it was all a joke!'. Tears glistened in her eyes making them sharper than ever, "How can that possibly be true? It sounds like a rather complicate tale you've concocted on the spot."
"You know it isn't. I knew about the Howling commandos before it was even a thing," She reminded her.
"Perhaps it was a lucky guess."
Bea exclaimed, "you have to believe me. I've got no clue what to do now… all I know is Steve was there to take down red skull, if he isn't there now then someone needs to be. I- I can't let it be Bucky…"
"Does Sergeant Barnes know about all of this?" Peggy asked curiously.
"No. He has no idea."
For a moment she considered laughing and pretending everything she had said was all a joke, when Peggy had nothing to say. She didn't have any words– of course. No words could possibly comprehend what she had just told her. Bea averted her eyes to the floor, flushing with red embarrassment. Should she wait for her to speak? Or continue trying to justify her case to her?
"You have to understand, I've got no choice."
Peggy's jaw unlocked as she said, "You said half the universe was… snapped away? Disappeared? In your timeline. Was Sergeant Barnes one of them?"
Her mouth was almost too dry to talk. "Y-Yes." She croaked out, nodding like an idiot. "it was Steve that helped me raise my daughter."
Slowly, Peggy unclenched her hands from the box and revealed the contents inside. From the box, Peggy pulled out a blue vial.
"I don't think the SSR is aware they even have this in their possession," Peggy admired the contents up close, "We could recreate the super soldier programme with this."
"We don't have time for that," Bea told her, tentatively reaching forward to take the vile. Slow enough not to startle her. She half didn't trust Peggy to hold it, she could still very well turn against Bea. "Red Skull has plans soon to bomb US cities. It needs to be me."
"Or me?" Peggy tightened her grip on the vile, "Steve would have trusted me to finish the job."
"Peggy, please don't think for a second that I doubt that you can do this but I know… or I think I know… what Steve did in this mission. I spent enough of history class reading about it. I can follow his steps, even get in front of them and ahead of Red Skull. I can get on the plane and get the tesseract."
"You just told me Steve crashed the plane to stop the bombs."
"And the plane can still crash," Bea said confidently, "but with this-" she held up her wrist strap, "I can get out of there with the click of the button with the tesseract. No one has to crash with the plane this time. Maybe… this way… I might be able to solve all the errors I caused. Please. Please Peggy…"
"Very well." The vial was slapped into Beatrice's hands. It was cold against her palm. Quickly, she held it upright, scared it would tip out even though it was secured from the top. Now she had it in her hand the reality sunk in. What she was about to do. There was no going back. Carefully, she passed it back to Peggy, feeling violent shakes begin to spurt into the tips of her fingers.
She needed to be brave. For Brooke. For Bucky. And for Steve.
Bravery isn't something you want to do. It's something you have to do.
"I need your help to inject this into me."
*~It started with Pizza~*
Peggy laid her down on the lab table. Shifting uncomfortably, Bea found a bump in every position she sat in until Peggy softly rested a hand on her forearm and quietly whispered to 'stop moving.'
Peggy moved from her view to get the injection ready. Bea stared at the ceiling to stop her mind drifting too far. All her instincts demanded she flee the room immediately. She curled her fingers around the table, tightening her grip to stop herself.
Peggy's voice sounded over the tapping screams in her mind, "Steve and Bucky survived this procedure."
"They're strong," she said, "much stronger than I'll ever be."
"Did you not see Captain Rogers before the serum? He was small and skinny with every possible infliction he could have without dying. You'll be fine."
She came into her view again, tapping at a needle. The blue contents from the vial swirled around inside. "Are you sure about this?"
She didn't have a choice. Nodding tightly, she turned away. Waiting for the expected jab of the needle as it went into her arm. Peggy moved slowly, her hands cold as she touched Bea's arm until the needle came into contact with her-
Holy shit! – every bone in her body vibrated. Her head would surly split open. The soft touch of Peggy's fingers holding onto her arm was lost and the burn of fire spreading through her veins replaced it. She tried to close her eyes… to block it out… but they rolled back into her skull… She couldn't block out the feeling of her skin stretching. Expanding. Until all she felt was everything ripping inside her as if hot lava had been injected into her.
She couldn't hear her own scream, but she must have been as Peggy pleaded with her to calm down but she sounded far away. Like she was underwater. Her head drowning in pain and agony. Burning in a steam of fire. Her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Then… then it all stopped.
Beatrice rolled over, forgetting where she was, and where she was laying and fell off the table. Her hands were quick to catch her just before her nose connected with the floor. Shaking uncontrollably something soft was laid over her.
"Calm down," Peggy continued to repeat like a prayer, "just breathe."
"Did- did…. Did it work?" She clutched the blanket wrapped around her shoulders like it was her only grip on the world.
"You tell me – you certainly… uh – you certainly look different." Peggy pulled a mirror out from her pocket and showed Bea what had happened. At first, she could only see her face and it looked the same maybe a bit more sleep deprived and her hair was ragged and greasy but Peggy angled it downwards at her arms and body. The usual flab of fat that resided on her stomach since she'd had Brooke, was gone. It felt tight, as if everything had been replaced by hard muscles wrapped around her. Her arms were three times the size they were. With the other arm, she poked them to make sure they were actually there. Strangely, she felt taller too.
"Bloody hell!" She exploded.
"Congratulations," Peggy smiled at her, "you are officially a super soldier."
She was strong. She didn't need to test it to know. Her muscles felt like vibranium. Nothing could break her. She was the same as Bucky and Steve now. There was no doubting her power anymore.
"Time to take down Hydra."
Before they left on their mission, Bea demanded a detour back to Zola's room. With Peggy's influence the guard outside went away for a minute or so and Beatrice was allowed to enter as Peggy waited outside. Neither of the two women knew what she was going to do. She just knew she had to do something about the snake of a man, who ruined Bucky's life and infiltrated Hydra.
With Steve gone, there would be no-one there to stop Hydra in seventy years' time from taking over the world. Yet, here in front of her was the man who started it all. If she stopped it now, it wouldn't matter.
But upon entering the smug grin Zola sent her made the fire burn in her veins, as if the serum was injected all over again. She reached for her gun strapped to her leg and indulged in the momentary fear as the gun pressed between the side of his head.
"It worked," Zola shakily said, "What are you doing?"
"Giving you your freedom," her finger gently squeezed the trigger but the sound that followed was far from gentle. Zola had attempted to scream but the gun was far too quick, cutting him off as he opened his mouth.
The gun shot echoed out.
Silence. The splatter of his blood painting the walls opposite.
A/N I have no idea if this is how the serum works or if Zola had it on the train with him. I just made a decision to make her a super soldier and needed a way to do it. Please don't question me about the mechanics, I don't know them :/. Lol.
Also, to all the people asking last chapter if Steve is really dead. Yes, in this timeline he is. I had rewatched the train scene from the first Avenger and saw a bit where if Bucky hadn't picked up the shield and fired at a Hydra agent when he did, Steve would have been shot, so in this fic, Steve didn't fall off the plane but was shot with a tesseract powered weapon. But yes, he is dead, dead…
And I'm working off what I understand from the Endgame logic of time travel that when the Avengers 'went back in time', they also travelled to a different timeline so anything that happens in the past will not affect Bea's actual timeline… if that makes sense. So 'her' Steve is still very much alive when she goes back to the present day.
Also, one more chapter until the time heist is over and Bea goes back to the present, … next update; Saturday
I just want to give a quick shoutout to LunaEvanna Longbottom who made me laugh so much with her review and to Fede67489 who made me giggle when I heard about your anger over the last chapter… what can I say, I enjoy my readers suffering, also Neomulder who somehow keeps guessing what I'm going to write next. Haha. Thank you all!
In other news, how's quarantine suiting everyone? Stay safe readers x
